So, the other day, Five Eleven showed me the cutest Youtube
video. It was called ‘Beaver waves hi to a little kid.’ I’m trying to figure out
if the beaver was slipping off the glass and it looked like it was waving, or
was it actually waving? Can we now add beavers to the realm of animals like
dolphins and chimpanzees?
I know they are curious animals. I remember canoeing alone
in a small New England lake once and I was
stalked by a beaver. I could see it watching me. It would be on one side of me,
then next thing I know, it would be somewhere else. Then, I’d unknowingly get
too close to its next spying spot and it would slam its tail on the surface of
the water and scare the bejeebees out of me.
I’ve always liked beavers but that term has more than one
connotation. And, yes, I like all the definitions. Beaver, as the critter
Castor canadensis here in North America , or
beaver, as a reference to the female genitalia.
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| I have never got a picture of a beaver, just beaver dams. Because, as I said, they'd probably scare the crap out of me and I'd drop my camera in the water or something. |
So, that brought me to another memory. Once upon a time, I
was on the Board of Directors for an environmental group. We were having a
meeting with the woman who would be the new Project Coordinator, a position I
had previously held for many years. (I may have to write about that in the
future and how I beat Al Gore out for an environmental award we were both in
the running for. My resume actually says exactly that. “Beat Al Gore for
Environmental Award.” Not everyone can say that.)
Anyway, our small Board was gathered in a casual setting
with big comfy leather furniture, because that’s what kind of group we were.
Our new Project Coordinator was telling us about her collection of taxidermy
animals that she had (with the license to actually have them). Since her
role would be going into schools and teaching kids about being good earth
stewards, I thought this was a wonderful addition to have. She told us about
the kinds of animals she had, which honestly, I can’t remember anything else
but one. The beaver.
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| Sorry I don't have any more exciting beaver pics than this. Came out of a giant ClipArt book I have. |
I was so excited that she had one and I knew they could vary
in size from about 35 to 75 pounds. So, without thinking, I asked her the question
that could only be brought up in this exact situation. The question that would
otherwise only be used in some skanky sex chatroom.
“How big is your beaver?”
I’m sure she answered me, or us, at the time. I, however,
was so distracted by one of the other female Board members who suddenly left
the room without even excusing herself, that I couldn’t tell you the answer. At
a break soon after, I went outside to check on her. We’ll call her Lisa. Lisa
was outside in the cold, brisk air. Tears were streaming down her face.
I went to console her because that’s what I do, but soon
realized that she was crying because she was laughing so hard. You know when
someone tries to tell you something so funny and you can’t understand what in
the heck they are saying because they are laughing so hard and you end up
laughing with them just because they are laughing? That’s what happened.
Yea. It was one of those moments. When I finally got the
gist of why she was laughing, like her, I was now an uncontrollable mess. All I
could think was, ‘Oh my god! How could I not have realized that I asked another
woman how big her beaver was?’
I think, in this rare instance, in this moment of taxidermy
conversation, that this was the only moment in the history of mankind where one
woman could honestly and innocently ask another, “How big is your beaver?” You
try that, Al Gore.
@Ybbeige
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